...ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the
authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition
of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals
of general alarm. Every government would espouse the common cause.
A correspondence would be opened. Plans of resistance would be
concerted. One spirit would animate and conduct the whole...But what degree of madness could ever
drive the federal government to such an extremity.

Well the federal government has not gone mad. Rather the people have become apathetic, lazy, submissive
and dependent. James Madison was arguing for the ratification of the Constitution and insisted the States - and the people - had nothing to fear from a federal government. His arguments were persuasive, he believed the American people would resist encroachments by the federal government and assured the skeptics that the Constitution offered absolute protection against such encroachment. He was wrong.

Madison
supposed in Number 46 that the opponents of the Constitution assumed
the only way the federal government could usurp the power of the States
(and therefore the people) would be to "accumulate a military force for
the projects of ambition". He considered this possibility extremely
far-fetched:

Besides
the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over
the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate
governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the
militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises
of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government
of any form can admit of.

He called it an insult to the people:

Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with
the suspicion, that they would be less able to defend the rights
of which they would be in actual possession, than the debased
subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the
hands of their oppressors. Let us rather no longer insult them
with the supposition that they can ever reduce themselves to the
necessity of making the experiment, by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious measures which must precede and
produce it.

Blind and submissive. Turns out the American people are not easily insulted. Here is a taste of what we are submitting to:

Much of the criticism of the $787 billion stimulus bill is
focused on its cost. But what's really at issue is a matter of
life and death. Buried deep in the package, there is an expensive
new healthcare program that could jeopardize the health, even the
lives, of millions of patients.

The bill funnels about $1 billion into government-run
"comparative effectiveness research" (CER). Sounds innocuous
enough -- that's a relatively paltry sum given the package's $800
billion-plus price tag. But CER will have profound effects on the
availability of top-notch treatments in this country. Stripped of
bureaucratic jargon, it is the precursor for a national
healthcare rationing board.

...

Virtually every government-run CER program ends up closing off
patient access to the best treatments in the name of "cost
consciousness." When bureaucrats are put in charge of medical
care, cutting down on bills is prioritized over fighting disease.

...

There are plenty of proposals included in the stimulus package
that aren't actually tied to economic recovery. But CER is the
only one that threatens the lives of countless Americans. It's
too dangerous to be ignored.

"3.6 trillion dollars is one out of every four dollars produced in the United States.
It's 25% of the GDP. It's 2 and a half Californias... We are going from
an era where we looked for the private sector to create wealth to where
we are looking for the government to orchestrate the economy. Barack
Obama says, "The government must lead." So I take it the private sector
is no longer going to decide where investments should go but rather the
government is going to decide that we're going to have a certain kind
of energy sector, a certain kind of manufacturing, a certain kind of
service sector. That seems to me pretty arrogant."

Peter MoriciUniversity of Maryland EconomistFOX NewsFebruary 27, 2009

Senator Tom Coburn: new debt proposed by Administration's budget is larger than the total amount of debt accumulated by the government from 1789 to today.

“If President Obama gets his way, the 92 percent of American homeowners
who pay their mortgages on time will be forced to do with less in the
future so that the Obama administration can use their money to reward
banks that offered bad loans to customers who had no business accepting
them,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee
Republican Party. “Government has no business forcing one American to
pay another American’s mortgage. It’s time for the Obama administration
to stop the bailout madness, unshackle the economy and the creativity
of the American people by reducing personal and business taxes and
cutting government red-tape and interference in the economy, and let
the free markets work.”

Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama
administration today will move to rescind a controversial rule that
allows healthcare workers to deny abortion counseling or other family
planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs,
according to administration officials.

The rollback of the so-called conscience rule comes just two months
after the Bush administration announced it late last year in one of its
final policy initiatives.

If we are going to be a nation that supports the “freedom to
choose,” then it seems to me that has to go both ways. Professional
health workers should be “free to choose” whether or not they will
participate in what they find to be morally objectionable.

Freedom that is only one-sided i.e., “she is free to have a late term, partial-birth abortion and you are not free to refuse her request” or “she is free to demand this contraception and you are not free to refuse to fill that prescription,” is not really freedom.

It is enslavement. Dress it up any way you want. If the government
is forcing you to do what your conscience tells you not to, under
threats to your freedom, your purse or your livelihood, then you are
not free.

As The Anchoress points out, FREEDOM is not necessarily on Obama's radar screen:

But you know, the other night, when Obama addressed the joint houses of
Congress, he only used the world “freedom” once. Just once. It’s not
really what he’s about. Not really on his radar.

Apparently not on the radar of many Americans either.

There is a bright spot, however, for those of us who value our freedom and who take responsibility for our mistakes, pay the consequences and move on. Those of us who believe that freedom is much too precious to trade for a mortgage payment. Maybe the unprecedented power-grab by Barack Obama and the Democrats has finally caused us to wake up and fight back.

There is, as the old ’60s song goes, something happening here. And what
it is, is very clear: A grass-roots revolt against the culture of
entitlement. The spendzillas in Washington do not speak for us.

Will we, as Madison so passionately argued, defend our rights? Or will we submit?

February 21, 2009

The White House on Friday launched a bullish retaliatory attack on cable television reporter Rick Santelli, saying his "rant" against President Obama's housing foreclosure plan is uninformed and dangerous.

...

"I'm not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives, or in what house he
lives," Mr. Gibbs said, repeatedly blasting the reporter by name.

"I would encourage him to read the president's plan and understand
that it will help millions of people, many of whom he knows. I would be
more than happy to have him come here and read it. I would be more than
happy to buy him a cup of coffee decaf."

...

Helped by prominent coverage from the Drudge Report, Mr. Santelli's
strenuous denouncements of the president's housing plan on CNBC have
become an Internet sensation. Mr. Santelli called for a "Chicago Tea
Party" revolt against Mr. Obama's plans.

"The government is promoting bad behavior," Mr. Santelli said,
calling on the administration to hold an Internet referendum to see if
Americans really wanted to rescue those with bad mortgages.

It would have been helpful if Gibbs had encouraged Democrat Chuck Schumer, who voted for the bill, to read it.

February 17, 2009

Border Patrol agents
Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean have been released from federal prison
after serving more than two years in solitary confinement for the
non-fatal shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler.

President Bush commuted the
sentences of the two border guards Jan. 19, and his order will go into
effect on March 20. The pair will serve out the remaining month of
their sentences in home confinement in El Paso, Texas.

February 14, 2009

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the
health provisions slipped in without discussion. These
provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently
the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them
because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer
to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in
the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments
will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having
electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily
transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid
duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the
National Coordinator of Health Information
Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is
doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost
effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your
doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus
bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his
2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care
Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy
and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

The federal government will now decide what's appropriate - and cost effective - when it comes to our medical care. Tom Daschle, who had to withdraw as nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, still managed to get his government run health care scheme on the front-burner in Washington. Maybe Obama will name him the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology.

Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York who
wrote a critical column on the measure this week, said that would allow
the federal government to hand information to doctors and guide their
decisions at a patient's bedside.

"The language of the bill is very troubling," McCaughey
told FOX News.

"This is going to be a two-way system. Your medical treatment will be stored in the database, but
the government will also be communicating with your doctor at the time and place of care," she said.

As for "economic stimulus", just who will be paying for this new, massive bureaucracy? No doubt many jobs will be created. All paid for by the American taxpayer.

February 08, 2009

I got this parable via email from my father, and it certainly seems to
describe what our government is trying to do to Americans today.

A professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class.
One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young
man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if
his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student
told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while
fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow
his country's government and install a new communist regime.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a
strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.
The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a
suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs
find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are
used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place
where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they
begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence.

They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you
have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The
pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to
eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and
around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to
eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten
how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their
captivity.

CY closed his post with a couple of questions:

There are pig farmers in the White House and Congress that would see
you led in captivity so that they may dine on your fatted flesh.

Will you be led to slaughter.

Or will you be free?

Commenter Don, the Rebel without a Blog responded: Did you hear that noise? It was the gate slamming behind you. It's too late.

Is it too late? Have we lost our will to fight back?

The so-called stimulus bill has not passed - yet. Thanks to three so-called Republicans a 778-page compromise has been reached. The cloture vote is set for tomorrow night. As Michelle Malkin points out (the obvious which our esteemed Senators don't seem to get) there is precious little time for Senators to read the entire bill much less debate its merits (assuming there are any):

So, your representatives of the “most deliberative body in the world” have barely a day to digest and debate the 778-page legislative text before rushing to vote on cloture Monday evening.

Arlen Specter, one of the architects of the compromise, admits as much:

Specter said he had already noted "certain grave concerns" with the
stimulus legislation and had asked President Obama why he was "wedded"
to completing action on it by Feb. 13. Specter said he told Obama this
was too fast "for a bill of this magnitude."

Grave concerns. Sounds ominous but the ever-reliable turncoat will support the bill anyway:

But he said that Obama had stressed the urgency of action, so while "I
don't like it," Specter said, "we're responding to this timetable."

Way to go Senator. You're supposed to be representing the people of Pennsylvania, not Barack Obama:

Parts of the bill "give me heartburn," Specter said.

Unfortunately if this bill passes the American people will suffer much more than heartburn.

Immediately cut all personal and corporate income taxes in half for all 12 months of 2009.

Obama and the Democrats hate tax cuts with a passion. He who has the money has the power and power is the one thing the Democrats - and some Republicans - cherish above all. It is time to stop them. The more power we relinquish to Washington the less freedom we have. It's that simple.

Twitter Updates

The Federalist Papers

Degree of Madness

"...... ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority
of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State,
or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm.....But what
DEGREE OF MADNESS could ever drive the federal government to such an
extremity."
Federalist #46 James Madison